The original version of PULCINELLA was choreographed by Massine with designs by Picasso in 1920. Like the original, Richard Alston’s greatly-admired version of the complicated love-story has a Neapolitan setting and is based on traditional Commedia dell’Arte characters.
Oedipus Rex
Stravinsky used a text by Cocteau, translated into Latin, for this opera-oratorio which he made deliberately statuesque in effect, its music a whole anthology of neo-classic styles, from Bach and Handel to Gluck. The masked and costumed singers barely move and a narrator explains the action. In this powerful production, recorded live from Amsterdam’s Carré Theatre, Bernard Haitink conducts the NOS Men’s Choir and the Concertgebouw Orchestra, with Neil Rosenshein and Felicity Palmer in the leading roles. The narration is available in English (Alan Howard), French (Jean Rochefort) and German (Mathieu Carrière).
Salzburg Opening Concert
With Pierre Boulez, Daniel Barenboim and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra you are assured of a
concert of superlatives.
“Unsurpassable in terms of the delicacy of its sonorities.” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
„An ideal combination“ Kronenzeitung
“Boulez at his most responsive and insightful in all three works. And a grandiose orchestra – the Wiener
Philharmoniker in top form” (Kurier).
Stravinsky in Hollywood
Stravinsky in Hollywood explores the short-lived film career of this legendary musician, traces the account of his trials and tribulations with the Hollywood Studios, and narrates the story of an “old school” European artist coming to terms with a brash New World. Expecting to find lucrative employment composing for the silver screen, Stravinsky would eventually live and work in Hollywood from 1939 until shortly before his death in 1971. Using a combination of archival footage (some of it never seen before), interviews with the composer and several scenes from big studio films of the 40s scored by the Russian master, Stravinsky in Hollywood reveals what became of the man and the artist during
his some four decades in California.
Andris Nelsons “From the New World”
It isn’t often that a young conductor excites audiences and stirs up critics to the extent that Andris Nelsons does. In this case, the young Latvian headed the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the orchestra of his mentor and fellow countryman Mariss Jansons, in a high-profile programme that calls for utmost virtuosity as much as it does for poetic zest: “From the New World” was the motto of this sweeping concert that received rave reviews and cemented Nelsons’ status as the “real deal” among up-and-coming conductors. Pairing Dvorák’s New World Symphony with other salient works from the 20th and 21st centuries that were also conceived on US soil, the event proved to be a triumphant showcase for all involved. “One rarely exper iences such a na tural connect ion between conductor and orchestra … Andris Nelsons and the Bavarian Radio Orchestra are a sensation!“ Stuttgarter Zeitung
Valery Gergiev & Le sacre du printemps
This programme records the meeting of two Russian musical giants, as Valéry Gergiev, the most charismatic and dynamic conductor of our day, rehearses, performs and discusses Stravinsky’s masterpiece. Innovative, inspiring and exhilarating, the Sacre du printemps is close to the maestro’s heart. Among a wide range of archive material used in the programme is a rare clip of Igor Stravinsky conducting the Sacre, as well as footage of him talking about his composition.
The Rake’s Progress
From the Salzburg Festival 1996: This striking Salzburg Festival production is the result of a collaboration between director Peter Mussbach and the leading German artist Jörg Immendorff, whose spectacular, self-referential and humorous designs were hailed as a triumph. Their fascinating and complex interpretation of the moral tale has Tom Rakewell as an artist in search of his aesthetic position. An exceptionally fine musical performance features Jerry Hadley as Tom, Dawn Upshaw as Anne, and Monte Pederson as Nick Shadow. Sylvain Cambreling conducts the Camerata Academica. (Sung in English)
Sacre du printemps/Symphonies for Winds
The rhythmic complexities of the Sacre are notorious but, in the hands of a master of modern music and one of the world’s top orchestras, the London Symphony Orchestra, the elemental barbarism of the music is thrilling. Boulez’s definitive reading of Stravinsky’s masterpiece was recorded live from the Alte Oper Frankfurt, in a performance specially staged for the cameras. The programme includes a short interview with the conductor about this landmark work (available in English, French and German), as well as a performance of Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments.
Kirov Classics – A Mixed Bill
This first-ever studio recording of the world-famous Kirov Ballet was made by the award-winning director Thomas Grimm at the Danmarks Radio Århus Dance Studio, the most advanced facility of ist kind. It showcases highlights from their repertoire, both classic and contemporary, and features a galaxy of star dancers, including Larissa Lezhnina, Altynai Asylmuratova, Sergei Vikharev, Faroukh Ruzimatov, Konstantin Zaklinsky, Yelena Pankova and Yulia Makhalina. These Kirov performances may be acquired separately or combined in a mixed bill; Petrushka (50′), Chopiniana (36′), Paquita (37′), Le Corsaire – pas de deux (9′), Markitenka – pas de six (16′), The Fairy Doll (12′), Barber’s Adagio (14′).
L’Histoire du soldat
Jirí Kylián feels a great affinity for Stravinsky, who, like himself, was forced to leave his homeland. He describes the composer’s music drama L’Histoire du soldat as a “”surrealistic fairy tale for grown-up children””. His version of the piece uses the original French version libretto by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz. With scenery and costumes by John MacFarlane, this studio recording features Nacho Duato as the soldier who sells his soul to the Devil for wealth, but is forced to wander the world.
The onset of the First World War and the Russian Revolution of 1917 had drastic consequences for Stravinsky in his Swiss exile: his property was confiscated, and he thereby lost the rights to his works and the associated income, leaving him in a situation which isolated him as an artist. L’Histoire du soldat, with its diversity, its structure, the switching between narration, action, mime and dance, and its elements from tango, English Waltz and Ragtime, could not have been categorised under any genre which existed at the time. It was premiered on 28 September 1918 and in this version is brilliantly reinterpreted by the Nederlands Dans Theater.